Life Reinvented in Phoenix

My husband lost his job in California and we were forced to move to Las Vegas and short sell our home of 8 years. Fast forward 9 months and another job is gone. So now we are on a journey to reinvent our "life" in Phoenix.

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Monday, February 20, 2012

In honor of Presidents' Day, here are some interesting facts about Presidents, that you may or may not already know:

Bushu-Suru (literally translated 'to do the Bush thing') is a Japanese word for public vomiting due to the 1992 incident where George W. Bush vomited at a dinner party held at the Japanese Prime Ministers home.

In 1967, Ronald Reagan began eating jelly beans to help him give up a pipe smoking habit. Three-and-a-half tons of Jelly Bellies were shipped to the White House for the 1981 Inaugural festivities. Blueberry, one of the most popular current flavors, was developed for President Reagan’s inauguration so that there would be red, white and blue jelly beans at the festivities.

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans

George Washington only received the equivalent of an elementary school education.

George Washington

Jimmy Carter was the first President to be born in a hospital.

Jimmy Carter

James Madison was the shortest President of the United States, standing at only 5'4". He never weighed more than 100 pounds.

James Madison

Three presidents died on July 4th: Thomas Jefferson (1826), John Adams (1826), and James Monroe (1831).

James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand, simultaneously.

The three best known Western names in China are Jesus Christ, Elvis Presley, and Richard Nixon.

Elvis Presley

Richard Nixon

Jesus Christ

Abraham Lincoln was the first president to ever be photographed at his inauguration. In the photo, he is standing near John Wilkes Booth, his future assassin.

Abraham Lincoln's Inauguration

No president has ever been an only child.

Every so often, Calvin Coolidge would press all the buttons on the President’s desk and hide and watch his staff run in. He would then pop out from behind the door and say that he was just seeing if everyone was working.

Calvin Coolidge

Gerald Ford was the first person to be both vice president and president without being elected by the people. He was appointed vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned and he succeeded to the presidency when Nixon resigned.

Monday, February 13, 2012

As if my initial Valentine's project wasn't enough, I decide to make something for the kids' teachers too! I stumbled upon the idea on Pinterest. The original project was supposed to be an idea for wedding favors, but I thought they would make cute teacher gifts for Valentine's Day.

First we assembled all of the supplies.......

Corn Syrup, Gelatine, Flour, Bird Seed and Jute

We mixed up all of the ingredients and pressed some of the mixture into a greased cookie cutter. Then we poked a hole in it with a chopstick and removed the cookie cutter. We did this over and over until all the mixture was used. We let them dry over night on wax paper and then tied a length of jute on them for a hanger.

We packaged them in a plastic bag and decorated it with more jute and a tag.

We made enough to give 2 bird feeders to all three of Connor's teachers, Madison's teacher, the school nurse and the principal. Hopefully, they all enjoy birds in their yard!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

As you may or may not already know, I make my own dog food. Not just occasionally, but all of it. The only time I ever step into a pet store, is for poo bags. I know, I know, I could reuse grocery bags, but there is nothing worse than picking up a steaming pile of dog poo only to find out that there is a hole in the bag and you just stuck your finger in it. Meanwhile, you are 2 miles away from home with nothing to wipe the poo on.....so you walk all the way home with your fingers outstretched making sure that you don't touch anything, trying not to think about the poo on your fingers (not to mention the hole in the bag, from which the poo could rub up against your pants). Store bought poo bags.......WORTH.......EVERY......PENNY......enough said!

Anyway, dog food. I make my own. From human grade food. My dog eats better than a lot of humans. I do not, however spend a lot of money on said homemade dog food. I buy whole chickens when they are around 69 cents per pound and I keep them in my freezer. I have various recipes, some use rice, some use barley and oats others use potatoes. A while ago, I read that if you cook a whole chicken in a pressure cooker, the bones turn to mush and the dog can eat them. This is a great source of nutrients and calcium. I had been wanting to try it for a while but I didn't have a pressure cooker.

Last weekend, we were out shopping and my Mum decided to buy me a pressure cooker. I got it home and decided to go online to do more research about making dog food in a pressure cooker. While looking, I stumbled upon a video on YouTube by a veterinarian who has written a book about cooking for dogs. I watched the video and to my surprise, you can can cook a dog food stew in your slow cooker, using a whole chicken and the bones break down. I couldn't wait to try it out, after all, I love my slow cooker. And, I didn't have to learn how to use a new piece of equipment.

I put the slow cooker on low for 20 hours (that's not a typo, you need to cook for 12 -24 hours to break down the bones) and then I mashed the stew with a potato masher and voila.......

Healthy chicken stew packed with nutrients. I tested the bones just to make sure they were safe. The small bones just disintegrated into the stew and the larger bones are the consistency of a dog biscuit.

I switched up the recipe a bit based on what I have learned about the health benefits of various vegetables for dogs. Here is the original recipe by Dr. Greg:

I guess we will be returning that pressure cooker! View my other dog food recipes here.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

First of all, I have to say that I hate those cheesy little Valentine's that you buy for the kids to exchange at school. They are lame. They are overpriced. I mean, they don't even come with envelopes anymore. Why bother? Because the kids love to exchange Valentine's!

This year, we decided to make Valentine's for the kids to exchange at school. We had to make use of what craft supplies we already had on hand. After all, we still aren't in a position to be throwing money around! So I began to scour the internet for inspiration. I stumbled upon an idea for crayon hearts that looked cute and we just happened to have a shoe box full of old crayons.

So we began to remove the paper from all of the crayons in preparation for the melting phase. This was the least fun part, especially when we got to the crayons with extra strong glue. We ended up soaking some in warm water in order to get the paper off. Then we broke all the crayons into pieces and put them into heart shaped silicone muffin molds. We then melted them in the oven.

After they were cooled, we popped them out of the molds and voila, swirly crayon hearts.

We printed a message on card stock and mounted it on a square of decorative scrapbook paper with glue dots. We attached some double sided foam tape to the back of each crayon heart and then stuck it to the card stock. We made a total of 44. We had enough supplies to make them all without having to buy anything.

Friday, January 20, 2012

I have been aware of Pinterest for a while now but have been avoiding it due to the fact that I DO NOT need another time waster in my life. My fear was that it would be addictive like Facebook. But, I kept thinking that it would be a great venue to gain exposure to my Hubpages articles and my blog.

Well, I finally did it and the verdict is............I was right! What a time waster. The minute I signed up, I was hooked. I can't believe the over pouring of interesting "stuff" on there.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Sliding into a pair of underwear earlier this week, I put my finger through yet another hole in the lace. Scouring through my underwear drawer, one morning, for a stretch thong to wear under my workout Capri's, I was forced to wear a fancy lacy thong instead. I couldn't take it anymore, it was time to break down and buy some new underwear!

You see, I haven't purchased any underwear since early 2010. Mommy's underwear just isn't a priority when you are trying to cut expenses. I had a gift from Christmas that I was planning on returning and it came from Kohl's. So I set off with return in hand (alone, yay!) to Kohl's on a mission to find some new underwear. I went straight to customer service and received a $10 credit to be used in the store. I walked away from the counter thinking, "Cool, I should be able to get three pairs with this, give or take a dollar!"

I began to walk up and down the underwear aisles for the perfect pair. I wanted something that can be worn everyday and can also be worn under my workout pants without creating lines (no one wants to see that!). The only underwear that could handle that responsibility would be a microfiber or cotton thong. I thought to myself, "No problem, 3 tiny little pieces of fabric..........I can find that for $10." Within a very short period of time I found the perfect pair, they were a thin microfiber with no decoration. I picked them up with a smile on my face, but suddenly my expression turned to horror. You see, these perfect little panties were $9 per pair! One tiny little piece of fabric with a little bit of elastic was $9.......WTF!!! Since when did they start weaving gold into underwear? I quickly put them down and decided to keep looking; every pair I found was the same story. I was beside myself.

I decided to give up on the underwear, thinking that I might be able to find a better deal at Target. With my $10 credit in hand, I wandered off to see if I could find a bargain to take my mind off my underwear disappointment. When I rounded the first corner, I stumbled on a rack with a big sign that read, "Discontinued, 3 for $9.99". My heart leaped with excitement! Was it true, was this really a rack full of underwear? Well folks, it was AND there were lots and lots of thongs. I was so excited!

Realizing I had stumbled upon an amazing deal (now that underwear is more expensive than gold) I decided to buy 6 pairs (3 cotton, 3 lace). And, I no longer have to wear holey underwear!